Microsoft announced significant improvements to Azure Files at Ignite 2018 – higher scale, more IOPS, more throughput, lower latency, better security, and improved Azure File Sync!

Introducing limited public preview of Azure Premium Files {.x_MsoNormal}

They introduced a Solid-State Drive (SSD) based file service, which is suitable for workloads that are latency sensitive, IO intensive, and require high throughput.

Read the announcement for more details.  Join the preview program by filling out this form. Find pricing details on the Azure Files pricing page.

Larger and higher scale Azure Files shares – Coming soon! {.x_MsoNormal}

Microsoft is getting ready to launch the limited public preview of larger and higher scale Azure Files (aka Large File Shares) soon. This update to Azure Files is the underlying platform secret that enables Standard Files and Premium Files to achieve the maximum scale limits of capacity, IOPS, and throughput.

Public preview of Azure Active Directory authentication for Azure Files SMB access {.x_MsoNormal}

Azure Active Directory (AD) authentication for Azure Files using Azure AD Domain Services is now in public preview.

Read the announcement and learn more about the benefits here.  Refer to the step by step guidance to get started.  There is no additional charge for this integration.

Upcoming Azure File Sync Agent improvements in October update {.x_MsoNormal}

In the October release of the Azure File sync agent, we are making significant improvements to sync performance, tiering, and reporting. We have also added integration with DataON’s Kepler-47 storage appliance.

Learn more about the Azure File Sync update here. Look for an agent update release in October.

Thanks,
Alex